IPL 2013: The Week That Was

Two hat-tricks and two hundreds – yeah, it’s been that kind of a week at the IPL

Team of the Week It is getting really interesting at the top of the points table. In the past seven days, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals have all won two games each, with the latter losing one as well. Four points for each of these three teams have meant that they maintain their standing among the top-four. But they all stand warned, for the perennial favourites are on the move. Chennai Super Kings played three matches this week, won all three and with those six points are now sitting pretty at second in the table (at the time of writing this). And these wins have been impressive indeed. Delhi Daredevils weren’t given a sniff, Kolkata Knight Riders were blown away at home and Rajasthan were clinically put aside, despite a Shane Watson hundred – they are building momentum, and when the yellow-coloured juggernaut rolls, there is no stopping them.

Disappointment of the Week While four other teams were busy upping the ante, defending champions Kolkata lost steam. Three matches and three straight losses mean that they have four points from seven games, floating just above Pune Warriors and Delhi Daredevils, teams that haven’t flown all season. Sunil Narine has done his job with the ball and Gautam Gambhir has got runs. So where are things going wrong? They moved Yusuf Pathan up the order in a bid to get more aggression up top. But it left their already weak middle order even further depleted. Jacques Kallis isn’t proving to be as useful as he was last season and maybe it is time they have a run to Ryan Ten Doeschate. The point is that they need a turn-around or their stale strategy may cost them dearly.

Match of the Week Everybody loves a victory; players and fans alike. And this is especially so if it follows on the heels of six defeats (and a string of eight if you consider the last season as well). So, the Feroz Shah Kotla made for joyous scenes this past week when Delhi Daredevils won against Mumbai Indians in emphatic style. Delhi made some changes too in a bid to snag that first win. Dropping Morne Morkel was a big call and it almost didn’t work as Mumbai Indians put up a 160-odd target. Then Mahela Jayawardene came out to open the innings with Virender Sehwag, relegating David Warner to number three. You could almost see the idea behind it – Sehwag goes big and Mahela stabilizes things. And the strategy worked, like a charm. Sehwag’s 95 not out was the highest individual score until that point, even if this was about to change in the coming days. The underlying point is that it was the old Nawab of Najafgarh regaled the crowds at the Kotla that evening. His hand-eye co-ordination worked perfectly, the shots connected and runs flowed from his blade. He might never play for India again, but this was a stark reminder of what the Men in Blue will miss.

Player of the Week Amit Mishra and Sunil Narine with their respective hat-tricks or Shane Watson with the first hundred of this 2013 season – either of whom could have been viable candidates for this week’s pick. But when someone hits the quickest century ever in cricket history, off just 30 balls, that is where the debate ends. It is hard to decide what the most shocking statistic from that night is: that Chris Gayle struck a hundred runs off just five overs, or that he scored 150 runs off 53 balls, or that he ended up 175 not out off 66 balls, within sniffing distance of an unprecedented and unthinkable double hundred in T20 cricket? Or simply that he hit seventeen sixes during his time at the crease? Who will ever dare to bowl to this man again?

(Chetan Narula is the author of Skipper: A Definitive Account of India’s Greatest Captains.)